A four kinetic state model of fast axonal transport: Model formulation and perturbation solution

This paper formulates a four kinetic state model for fast axonal transport. The paper further develops the Smith-Simmons model that is based on equations governing intracellular molecular-motor-assisted transport; these equations are extended by considering four rather than three kinetic states for organelles. The model considers plus-end and minus-end-oriented organelles that can be either free (suspended in the cytosol) or attached to microtubules (MTs) (in the latter case organelles are transported by molecular motors). The paper then develops a method for uncoupling differential equations of the proposed model. A perturbation solution of this problem is obtained. The effect of transition between plus-end-oriented and minus-end oriented organelles is discussed. The accuracy of the obtained perturbation solution is evaluated by comparing the zero-order and the first-order results with a high-accuracy numerical solution.